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Safety At Stake: How Safe Are School Buses For Children In India?
Writer: Ratika Rana
Her primary objective is to inform, promote, educate and cultivate readers through writing.
India, 30 March 2022 4:30 AM GMT | Updated 30 March 2022 4:30 AM GMT
Editor : Shiva Chaudhary |
A post-graduate in Journalism and Mass Communication with relevant skills, specialising in content editing & writing. I believe in the precise dissemination of information based on facts to the public.
Creatives : Ratika Rana
Her primary objective is to inform, promote, educate and cultivate readers through writing.
In a recent incident, a seven-year-old Class 2 student came under the wheels of a school van inside the premises of the school. The school authorities rushed the child to the hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
Indian roads have often been questioned for their safety standards. Repeated instances of school-going children being run over by school vans and buses across the country raised several safety concerns.
The Delhi Police had impounded 23 school buses and had issued over 85 challans. In the same period, it also impounded 220 school vans and issued 397 challans to 248 of the school vans it checked, the Modi government said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha. The situation was even worse in the preceding year when the Delhi Police had impounded 1,039 out of 1,171 school buses that it checked.
States With The Highest Deaths
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had reported in 2019 that over 11,000 children had fallen prey to road accidents, which was an increase of 11.94 per cent from the previous year. Uttar Pradesh held the worst record with 2,388 deaths of children, followed by Tamil Nadu at 1,153 and Punjab with 979 deaths, The Times of India reported.
While the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act, 2019 laid down several provisions to ensure the safety of children, like mandating the child restraint system and compulsory use of seatbelts for children, it did not serve the purpose in the case of school buses and college vans.
Mandatory Guidelines For School Buses
School authorities took the matter into their hands. Many schools write behind the buses that if their fellow commuters found the school bus driver's speed rash, they could contact the school authorities and complain about the same.
However, school buses lack the most basic seatbelts that could highly prevent child deaths due to accidents. Moreover, there are no specific criteria to test the physical and mental capability of the bus driver.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has laid down proper guidelines for the exteriors and interiors of school buses in the country. However, school authorities must take a proactive approach to identify negligent drivers and take them off duty.
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